A paradigm shift in disaster management: Incorporating a human rights-based approach to disaster risk reduction

Abstract

Understanding disasters as socially constructed events represents a departure from current and historic ways in which disasters are characterized, requiring a focal shift in thinking from forces of nature toward social order. Changing societal reactions to evolving natural occurrences restores disasters within the social order, introducing law as an essential framework in approaching disasters as injustices as opposed to misfortunes. International attention is starting to shift strategies intended to reduce risks to natural or man-made hazards and increasing attention on methods toward minimizing their impact known as disaster risk reduction (DRR). DRR is “a policy aimed at preventing new and reducing existing disaster risk and managing residual risk, all of which contribute to strengthening resilience and therefore to the achievement of sustainable development.” The development of normative frameworks to reinforce disaster governance is a significant component in enhancing disaster management systems. Disaster law is an emerging tool to regulate “governance, ethics, and decisions on the demands of a sustainable, inclusive, and healthy planet.” International legal frameworks heavily influence disaster prevention and preparedness with an increased central focus on implementing International Human Rights Law in DRR practices. Legal structures protecting human rights in DRR initiatives positively obligate states to take proper and necessary actions to prevent harm from future disasters. The application of human rights standards fosters the paradigm shift from evaluation of the hazards impact toward assessments of states’ negligence of risks. Interactions among the natural environment, socio-demographics, and the built environment are strong predictors for disaster losses, thus “the regulatory potential for avoiding disasters and reducing their consequence is obvious.” Preventative action becomes a crucial element if the catalyst of the disaster event is failure to adequately prepare and social vulnerability. Disaster law encompasses participation, damage control, and local habitat management as mandatory conditions of governance, assigning criminal liability to public administrators’ negligence toward disaster planning and/or enforcement. Disaster law produces a “sustainable, reliable, and cost-effective model for addressing disasters,” empowering communities to participate in disaster management efforts, one of the strongest methods of building resilience and reducing risk to disasters.